slowdown of the AMOC since 1950. This critical system of currents distributes heat and salt throughout the oceans. However, the rapid melting of ice sheets and the continual weakening of the AMOC could destabilize the West African monsoon.This would cause droughts in Africa’s Sahel region and the Amazon.
In addition, slowing of the AMOC would disrupt the East Asian monsoon, causing extreme heating in the Southern Ocean, accelerating Antarctic ice loss. As you can see, crossing just one of the climate tipping points could cause cascading effects throughout the climate.Luckily, our fate isn’t sealed by a changing climate after all. The new study published in the journal Science finds that warning signs from the environment may point to its resilience.
An international team of ecologists and mathematicians studied these climate tipping points and made an unexpected discovery.“Yes, we need to do everything we can to stop climate change,” the authors said in complete agreement with the recent IPCC report. “But the Earth is much more resilient than previously thought. The concept of tipping points is too simple.”The paper builds on decades of collaborations between various research institutes in the Netherlands and other countries.
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